Seeno Homes sales manager indicted on federal felony fraud charges

May 24, 2012

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A federal grand jury has indicted a sales manager for Seeno Homes, the company owned by the Northern California family engaged in a high-profile legal battle with Nevada lobbyist and businessman Harvey Whittemore.

Carey Hendrickson is charged with three felony counts of fraud for an alleged home-buying scheme involving Seeno Homes and its sales company, Discovery Sales. Each count carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine.

Neither Hendrickson nor her lawyer could be reached Thursday, but she pleaded innocent to the charges during her April 26 arraignment in the U.S. District Court for Northern California. She is scheduled to return to court for a status conference on June 28.

Jack Gillund, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in San Francisco, said he could not comment on whether anyone from the Seeno or Discovery companies could also face charges, but a Seeno lawyer said no other charges have been filed.

Hendrickson was a Discovery Sales manager in 2008 when the alleged scheme occurred, the indictment said. Discovery, Seeno Homes and Collateral Financing Group share office space in Concord, Calif., and work together to develop, finance and sell homes, the indictment said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the Seeno Homes offices in 2010. Albert Seeno Jr. and his lawyer told the Reno Gazette-Journal during a February interview that the FBI was investigating some local officials and they were collecting documents from everyone who made contributions to those officials. Seeno Homes is the largest single-family home builder in the Bay Area.

According to the indictment, Hendrickson “engaged in a scheme and artifice to defraud financial institutions by simultaneously purchasing multiple residences from Seeno Homes, through its affiliate West Coast Builders, and submitting false and fraudulent loan applications to lenders for the purpose of obtaining mortgage loans to finance these purchases.”

The aim of this type of scheme is to pump up the market to make it look like developers are selling more homes than they have sold, according to a housing expert.

The Seeno’s San Francisco-based lawyer, Bill Goodman, said Hendrickson’s indictment did not involve the Seenos.

“They may be mentioned in the indictment but there is nothing in the indictment that implicates the Seenos or their companies in any wrongdoing,” Goodman said. “No charges have been brought and we’re optimistic that’s going to continue to be the case.”

Goodman acknowledged that the FBI “executed search warrants 2 ½ years ago at the Seeno offices,” but declined to say what the agents took during the raid.

Thomas and Albert Seeno Jr., not only own Seeno Homes and Whittemore’s former company, Wingfield Nevada Group, they also are part owners of the Peppermill Resort Spa Casino and hold gaming licenses in five other Nevada casinos.

Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Mark Lipparelli said he can’t comment on specific cases, but said that generally, gaming license holders are subject to licensing rules, which include maintaining a level of “suitability.”

“Licensees have a continuing obligation to demonstrate their licensing suitability,” Lipparelli said.

The Seenos are involved in competing lawsuits with Whittemore: The Seenos filed a state suit claiming Whittemore embezzled funds from the Wingfield company, while Whittemore responded with a federal suit accusing the Seenos of racketeering and making death threats.

Federal prosecutors filed a complaint against Hendrickson in February, and then took the case to a federal grand jury, which indicted her on April 24.

In an affidavit supporting the complaint, an FBI agent said she used money from a Seeno-owned company to buy four houses that had been developed and built by the Seenos. Hendrickson allegedly lied and omitted facts on her loan applications.

Among the alleged lies: she said she was buying each of the houses as her primary residence, and hid the fact that she was buying four homes at the same time. She also didn’t disclose that Seeno Homes was providing seller financing, which cut the net sales price by more than $500,000, the agent said.

The banks made three transfers to Hendrickson’s account for a down payment in May and June 2008, the indictment said. One was for $115,000, another for $125,000 and a third for $116,507.

Her purchases caused the banked and their appraisers to overvalue the Seeno properties, the agent said.